Rich Lafferty's Journal

(mendelicious mendelusions)

This blog has never been about anything in particular, other than whatever might be going on in my mind that I feel like writing about. That’s not going to change anytime soon, but there’s one thing that I’ve been meaning to write about for a while, but was never sure where to begin because I’ve got so much to say — and because I wasn’t sure how it’d go over with you guys, and that’s Buddhism.

I’ve been interested in Buddhism — specifically Zen — for a while, and have had a couple of abortive attempts at beginning practice. Even our wedding vows were inspired by those from a Western Buddhist ceremony. And now that I’m starting my overhaul, I’ve been thinking more about that. Beginning practice again is on my list of 101, and I know it will be an important balancing principle to the changes that I will be experiencing when I go back to school.

So I suppose this is your advance warning that I’m going to be writing a bit about Zen in the next little while. I’ll try not to get all religious on you, although I think that’d be hard with Zen anyhow, and I’ll try not to put you to sleep, too. But I’ll try to tell you the basics of this whole thing and what attracts me to it, highlight some readings I’ve enjoyed, and basically share my whole rediscovery of Zen. I hope you find it interesting.

Having said all that, is there anything you’ve wondered about Buddhism, Zen, North American Zen, or anything specific you’d like to read about? Let me know in the comments if you do, and I’ll try to address it in a later post.